April 2024 Progress Report
Hello hello!
April was a pretty good month for me although I did go a bit off track from my plans, however, I finished a lot of games I’ve had in my library for a long while (Cardinal Cross, The Confines of the Crown, AC3.) as well as bought some games I’ve been really excited to try (Cats of the Qing Dynasty, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, The Inheritance of Crimson Manor) so overall, pretty ok! I intended to finish Coromon but I started fostering a puppy until… lunchtime tomorrow and she is a handful due to her previous unfortunate circumstances. She’s learning! Although has not quite figured out how to drink water normally without sticking her face in the bowl.
Next month! I’m both looking forward to it and dreading it. I’m finally starting Fallout 76, It’s been on my mind for over 5 months and I can get to it now, but I’ll be gone the 10-18th to visit my grandparents and they still have a dial up phone. Wifi? Never knew her. Anyway, that’s a big chunk of my time gone and I’ve resigned myself to physical puzzles, paper (!!!) crossword books, and bird watching. I’ll bring my Gameboy…
Total games added to backlog: 4
Total completed: 6
Mr. Hadley Strange was a wealthy affluential Railway Tycoon before he, his wife, and three children drowned suddenly and tragically in the Thames River in a boat accident. As Mr. Strange’s private assistant who managed most of his financial and general affairs for the last ten years, the law office sent you a letter stating you are the only person authorized to collect and read his will. This is all normal procedure until you arrive at the Crimson Manor and realize your employer was perhaps more eccentric than you ever knew.
5+ hours to complete, The Inheritance of Crimson Manor is an interesting mix of a puzzle and an escape room, but instead of leaving you are working through puzzles to open more rooms and explore more of the luxurious manor. Two endings and easy to 100%, It’s a very charming and clever game with an engaging storyline that requires critical thinking, although there is a hint button available if you get too lost in the finely decorated residence. I found The Inheritance of Crimson Manor while looking for games similar to The Painscreek Killings, and if you like one, you will enjoy the other. As for cons, I wish that doors and drawers would stay open after you open them and that a couple of puzzles were not trial and error. Regardless, it’s an amazing and brilliant game, the ending was genuinely surprising despite the foreboding feeling that grew the closer I got to the end. No monsters or Jumpscares.
Assassin's Creed III Remastered
It’s 1775, The American Revolution is about to begin triggering a political rebellion of historical proportions against the British Kingdom and you are a young Native American caught up in the bloodshed. In an attempt to save your land and your family from being stolen, sold, and overrun, travel far in search of the symbol your elders spoke of, find a mentor, and learn what it takes to be an Assassin.
16-55+ hours to complete, Assassins Creed 3 is a kind of open-world RPG. I say kind of because this game has a very long prologue (6-11 hrs) and doesn’t become “open-world” until sequence 6. There are four areas to explore, colonial times Boston, New York, the Frontier, and the Homestead which is upgradeable by completing side missions with optional caravan trading for extra money. Extra optional naval missions except two that are mandatory for the main story, with plenty of ship upgrades that can be purchased. Hunting, skinning, and feather collecting aside, there is quite a bit of side quests to do, and I will admit the graphics look fairly nice – and now for the reason the game is mixed on Steam and why I can’t recommend it.
Setting aside the incredibly long prologue where it takes forever to start playing as Connor, the main character, and explore the world, Connor is easily the worst protagonist I’ve ever played in the Assassins Creed series. There is no character growth, he’s convinced the world is in black and white, that killing one man will fix all his problems, and doesn’t consider any other perspective than his own. I blame his mentor for allowing him to grow into this blind, innocent, naive idiot who can’t think about the bigger picture, but he should be capable of thinking for himself. He’s an assassin, but cannot deceive and takes what people say at face value – and then becomes shocked when people lie or betray him, when their goals are so clearly different from his own. A significant part of the story happens because Connor doesn’t share vital, relevant information with affected parties for seemingly no reason, he didn’t forget to tell his family, he just chose not to which led to some rather terrible things. Due to bad decision-making, I feel robbed of what could have been a cool story, and the game even acknowledges that he’s a man who’s made too many mistakes by the fact that Connor’s ending isn’t positive. It left a bitter taste in my mouth despite being deserved. The entire game just felt like a waste of time, and I would never recommend anyone to play this. Also, there are quick-time events
Cardinal Cross
For generations, humanity amongst the stars has been ruled by one machine that predicts the entire life, actions, and crimes of a person before they are even born. Apheta, an overwhelming, omnipotent AI overseen and kept by the wealthiest and most powerful among the Morai planet and government, has only one weakness. Howler Artifacts; priceless relics of a bygone age made of extinct materials that are so unpredictable they cause a glitch in Apheta’s systems, and one is in the unknowing hands of Lana Brice, a scavenger and procurer of valuable ancient items through not-always-legitimate-sources. Born on Peon-5, Lana’s latest haul from a toxic swamp has drawn a noticeable amount of interest from an anonymous client and gets her wrapped up in more red tape, political plots, and rebel dreams than a small-planet girl could ever wish for.
9-18 hours to complete, Cardinal Cross is an LGBTQ+ space-themed sci-fi fantasy VN with multiple endings and three personality choices for Lana as you play. 3 romance routes, over 70 CGs, and no voice acting. Heavy on world building, there is more lore than action. Exceptionally well written, there are only a handful of spelling errors with more as the game progresses. While Cardinal Cross isn’t a bad VN, far from it, I will mention a few complaints. The game speeds up considerably when you get in the last two chapters, to the point you are teleporting from place to place which is drastically different pacing from the start of the novel. More endings are bad than good, and the plot gets pretty convoluted. Despite leaving Early Access a bit too early, it’s a solid VN I recommend If you’re really into sci-fi.
Cats of the Qing Dynasty
1+ hours to complete, Cats of the Qing Dynasty is a Hidden object game with 600 cats over 6 levels. Impressively, no cat is copy/pasted and I did not note any duplicates. They purr when your mouse brushes them, clicking them gifts you with a wide variation of meows, and with multiple sizes, shapes, poses, and types of cats, it’s difficult to feel bored – especially once you realize the entire game takes place on one of the famous variations of the 1085-1145 CE, 5.25 meter (17ft) long painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”; specifically, the version made in 1736 by five collaborating artists.
Yes, the reason this game needs 4GB of space on your computer is because someone scanned the entire silk painting in such high quality you can see the texture of the fabric it’s made on, digitally touched it up, meticulously hid 600 cats in it, then sold it on the Steam store for less than 1 USD. Clicking on the title screen in-game grants you access to the entire original scanned painting that you can zoom in and out of, without the cats. This game is absolutely worth the purchase price. There is another version titled “Cats of the Ming Dynasty” by the same developer, if you enjoy this game, you will like that one as well.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Paul Prospero is a supernatural detective, one of the rare few who can interact with the unusual, and has a spectacular ability to glimpse into the past by recreating it; solving impossible murders. Reading his fan mail, Paul gets a letter from a young boy named Ethan Carter who has a special ability himself - Using the ability to see hidden things and places in his home of Red Creek Valley, he’s stumbled on something weird, and reaches out for help. Recognizing the significant threat, Paul heads to his location only to find that darkness has already settled in the valley. Follow the trail of corpses, piece together what happened, and discover the fate of the missing Ethan Carter.
4-5+ hours to complete, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a supernatural detective walking sim where you solve multiple murders and use a special ability to see into the past to piece the story together. Purchasing this game also gives you the updated redux version made in Unreal Engine 4, while the original was made in 3. Overall, I had a positive experience playing; the storyline, voice acting, graphics, writing, and exploration were pretty fun. In particular, I want to mention that the area is made with Photogrammetry; in which remote sensing is used to take multiple photos to make a digital map to create complicated 2D or 3D digital objects. For example, the mountain range shown is based on the Polish Karkonosze mountains. There is one easily avoidable jumpscare that gives you plenty of warning. The only cons I can think of are that some story sections can be accidentally skipped if you wander off, breaking the flow of the game when you have to backtrack, and that the game is autosave only.
The Confines Of The Crown
Prince Oscar of Ocendawyr and attendant Madeline travel to the Kingdom of Gwellinor in a bid for the princess's marriage at her royal debutante ball; but he is not the only one arriving in an attempt for her hand. Madeline’s goal is to advise Oscar, guide him, generally make him look good in the eyes of the princess, and not let him stumble into the political minefield that naturally occurs with so many high-profile guests. Things take a turn for the worse when the princess is kidnapped during her own ball, and your poor Prince Oscar is the main suspect! Not about to let him get arrested for a false crime, Madeline must unsheathe her blades, gather evidence, and investigate the other royal guests without getting caught to save her prince and childhood friend.
7-12 hours to complete, The Confines Of The Crown is an LGBTQ+ VN with 15 endings and 5 romance routes. Well written with some pretty impressive and well thought out plot twists, I didn’t note any spelling errors. Characters are fun, interesting, and well fleshed out, and in particular, Madeleine is a strong female lead who is genuinely competent and intelligent, making this a pleasure to read. Aside from a music mishap where two background tracks played over each other in an early scene, I had a very enjoyable time reading it and would recommend it to anyone interested in the storyline.
I like to think you gave the cats game a 10 because of the whole 10 1.0 100 just fitting nicely
Oh no the assassins creed. Gothic done that with Elex so I’m gonna judge that game harder then normal since its taking up two slots
Gave it a 10 because it deserves the 10, who scans a historical 1700 17ft silk painting only to turn it into a cat game. I can’t say anything new I haven’t written about already, but I’m still surprised I didn’t note any cat duplicates, there are 600 and their poses interact with the painting, a guy will be selling wares on a blanket, sitting on the road, and a cat will be leaning next to him or in one of the baskets. smh.
Judge it! Happy May!
Crimson Manor looks interesting, added to my wishlist. Hopefully the horror tag is not dominant.
Yeah, I hate when I cannot delete a game because of another. I started to mark them as private so at least I don’t see them on BLAEO.
It’s not the main thing and there really isn’t anything I, a scaredy cat, would make a note of. It’s more of a quiet and increasing “what the hell is going on in this house” vibe that quietly increases to dread.
So there is just tension, maybe something like The Room games perhaps? At least I got that vibe from the trailer. Seems nice then.
16-55+ hours to complete
That’s quite the spread there, but yes. With AC games it can vary. Not a big fan of 3 myself.
Lots of side activities! They were mostly for outfits, because you can’t upgrade Connor in any meaningful way.
I’ll pick up Valhalla eventually, either when achievements are added or my backlog is done. Do you have any favorites? I loved Odyssey and Origins.
I’m one of the outlier weirdoes who really liked Rogue. It was Black Flag, but had more to do with the whole AC mythos + it was on the shorter side doing away with a lot of filler stuff, or at least making it strongly optional. Certainly interesting to look back on both of those reviews of mine.
Haytham is in Rouge….. Shit I might, he was my favorite in 3.
In a small role. Still, you get to see what actually happened to Achilles.
Very nice. Solid mix of assassinations. ;)
Thank you! I hope it makes up for the absolute desert May is going to be.